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≡ THE 5-RING CIRCUS ≡
● Olympic Games 2028: Los Angeles ● Wednesday (22nd) saw the groundbreaking ceremony for the Knight Riders Cricket Ground, at the Pomona Fairplex, which will also be the host site for 2028 Olympic competition.
The facility is being built for the Los Angeles Knight Riders of Major League Cricket, which began operations in 2023, but does not have a local field. All Major League Cricket matches have been played at fields in Texas or Florida or the Oakland Coliseum in California.
The new venue in Pomona is expected to eventually seat 10,000; it is anticipated to be available initially this summer, for three Knight Riders matches in the first week of July and seven matches total during the season.
● Olympic Winter Games 2026: Milan Cortina ● Comcast Corporation announced its first quarter 2026 financial results, showing $1.420 billion in revenue attributable to the Winter Games, including $1.159 billion in advertising sales and another $262 million in domestic distribution revenue, much of which came from subscriptions to the Peacock streaming service.
NBC also had the NFL’s Super Bowl, of course, in 2026 and the one-day event brought in a total of $758 million in advertising sales, equal to 65.4% of the Winter Olympic total.
Powered in part by the Olympic and Super Bowl, Comcast’s Q1 revenue jumped to $31.5 billion, up from $28.4 billion in 2025. However:
“Adjusted EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] for Media decreased due to higher operating expenses more than offsetting higher revenue. The increase in operating expenses primarily reflects higher programming costs associated with the Milan Cortina Olympics and the NFL’s Super Bowl, as well as the impact of NBA rights in the current year period.”
The media segment which included the Olympic and Super Bowl revenue showed a loss of $426 million due to expenses related to those programs, compared with a $105 million profit in Q1 of 2025.
● Olympic Winter Games 2030: French Alps ● With discussions continuing on the use of the Allianz Arena in Nice for ice hockey during the 2030 Winter Games, the Paris Entertainment Company, which runs the Adidas Arena (~8,000 seats) and Accor Arena (~15,000), has inquired about having the Olympic ice hockey tournament held there instead.
The new mayor of Nice, Eric Ciotti, has opposed using the Allianz Arena for the games as it will prohibit use by the Nice football team for matches. Lyon is also asking about being a replacement, with the organizing committee and the French sports ministry involved in the continuing talks.
● Athletics ● MarathonHandbook.com reported that five of the top 10 men and two of the top 10 women at Monday’s Boston Marathon wore ASICS shoes:
“Two of those [7] runners chose prototypes, one a Metaspeed Sky and the other a Metaspeed Ray, while the rest raced in the current Metaspeed Sky Tokyo, Edge Tokyo, or Ray.”
The other shoe brands in the men’s top 10 were Nike (2), adidas, Hoka and Xtep; women’s winner Sharon Lokedi (KEN) wore Under Armour’s Velociti Elite 3, there were two in Nike, and one each with adidas, Brooks, Hoka, New Balance and Puma.
● Basketball ● The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) Central Board agreed on a modest change of position concerning Russian and Belarusian teams:
“Following the recommendation of the IOC [International Olympic Committee] to lift restrictions on the participation of the Russian and Belarusian athletes in youth competitions, Russia and Belarus have received an exceptional authorization to register U21 teams in conferences of the FIBA 3×3 Youth Nations League, to be played in China and Malaysia.
“The Central Board approved the preservation of the current status of Russian and Belarusian teams for all other competitions, including the Youth EuroBaskets 2026, until the next Executive Committee meeting, scheduled for September 2026.”
● Cycling ● Slovenian superstar Tadej Pogacar is after history once more with the fourth of five “Monument” races – the oldest of all: the 112th Liege-Bastogne-Liege – on tap for Sunday. The route is a hilly, 259.5 km route that starts and finishes in Liege.
The “Monuments” are the five ancient, one-day races in the sport, that go back before World War I and Pogacar owns 12 Monument wins, second all-time:
● Milan-Sanremo (ITA: 1907) ~ 1 Pogacar win, in 2026
● Ronde van Vlaanderen (BEL: 1913) ~ 3 wins in 2023-25-26
● Paris-Roubaix (FRA: 1896) ~ no wins
● Liege-Bastogne-Liege (BEL: 1892) ~ 3 wins in 2021-24-25
● Il Lombardia (ITA: 1905) ~ 5 wins in 2021-22-23-24-25
Only three Belgian riders – Rik Van Looy (1958-65), Eddy Merckx (1966-76) and Roger De Vlaeminck (1970-79) – have won all five and only Merckx has won each more than once.
Moreover, only Merckx and Pogacar have won as many as three Monuments in a season: Merckx in 1969-71-72-75 and Pogacar in 2025.
Pogacar was disappointed with a second-place finish at Paris-Roubax, but he can get a third Monument on Sunday as the two-time defending champion, and then target Il Lombardia on 10 October to get the record for most Monuments in a season!
● Football ● It is not only cities in the U.S. which are worried about FIFA World Cup 2026 costs.
Toronto’s The Globe and Mail noted Thursday that projected costs in 2018 for having six matches in Toronto were C$45 million ($32.9 million U.S.) and the bill is now C$380 million ($277.5 million U.S.).
For Vancouver, hosting seven matches was projected at C$240 million ($175.3 million U.S.) and now will cost C$624 million ($455.7 million U.S.). Or more.
All of this will impact discussions between the U.S. and its CONCACAF partners and FIFA concerning the 2031 Women’s World Cup, due to be awarded in December.
¶
The U.S. women’s national team will make a rare trip outside North America to play two matches in Brazil, the host of the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, on 6 and 9 June.
Ranked no. 2 by FIFA, the American women will play no. 6 Brazil first in Sao Paulo on 6 June and then in Fortaleza on the 9th. Both sites are World Cup venues. It will be the first trip for the U.S. women to Brazil since 2014.
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